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The flipside of the A-side: after-hour ramblings on life, the universe and everything

Have a look at this excellent editorial in Nature:Integrity starts with the health of research groups – Funders should force universities to support laboratories’ research health.

I really like the term ‘research health’, which encompasses both technical aspects of doing research right as well as the well-being of researchers.

[Research health] includes technical robustness of lab practices, assurance of ethical integrity and the psychological health and well-being of group members.

Science is by humans for humans and it is good to see these different aspects being discussed together.

Of course, none of this will be news to keen readers of this blog.

I don’t want to show off, but …

… I emphasized the importance of group leaders to shape the culture of their labs in 5 Selfish Reasons …

… and I have highlighted that the quality of people skills is being neglected in current scientific assessment practices, when I argued for continuous leadership support back in 2015.

If these ideas now make it to Nature, there is a actually a chance that scientific culture improves.

The subtitle of the editorial puts the burden on funders, but -honestly- there is no excuse for department heads or individual PIs to neglect their laboratories’ research health no matter what the funders do or say.